Carlton will enter the AFL draft with a strong hand after the rebuilding Blues were a major player in this year’s trade period.

AFL clubs quickly turned their focus to the national draft as the trade window closed and Carlton do so with four picks inside the top 20 – including the prized first overall call.

“It’s a two-phase approach by getting some talented young boys in with a couple of years experience and also getting some low draft picks to get some really talented players in,” football manager Andrew McKay said.

The AFL draft will take place at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Tuesday, November 24.

Carlton entered the trade period with picks 1 and 20 and left with 1, 8, 11 and 19, while also bringing in a host of young players with good draft pedigrees.

Lachie Plowman (taken third overall at the 2012 draft), Liam Sumner (10th in 2011) and Jed Lamb (21st in 2010) were all first-round draft picks, while fellow ex-Giant Andrew Phillips and Adelaide midfielder Sam Kerridge have plenty of upside.

Those moves came at a cost with Lachie Henderson departing for Geelong, Chris Yarran switching to Richmond and Tom Bell heading north to Brisbane.

But the toughest call for fans to swallow was the decision to ship exciting forward Troy Menzel to the Crows.

“To do a trade these days you need to be able to give up something to get something,” list manager Stephen Silvagni told the club’s website.

“We needed to be able to give up something to get pick 28 and Sam Kerridge to then use that pick 28 to basically get those four GWS players we obviously had to make a decision, and we’ve gone with that.

“I think the two parties involved, both Carlton and Adelaide, were really happy with the way it panned out both walk away with a really good deal.”